General SEO

SERP is an acronym that stands for search engine results page. It is a term often used within SEO circles to describe the results that a search engine returns after a keyword phrase has been searched.

The most popular search engines (Google, Bing, & Yahoo) will typically return two types of results on a SERP, organic and paid.

The organic results of a SERP will display the most popular pages as determined by the search engine’s organic algorithm. In most cases the organic results will be sandwiched in between various sets of paid listings.

A SERP can vary drastically depending on the query and the query location.

The open directory project (ODP), sometimes referred to as DMOZ, is a one of the largest human edited directories on the web. DMOZ is the abbreviated version of its original URL, directory.mozilla.org. The ODP is owned by AOL (previously Netscape) but is maintained and managed by a close knit group of volunteer editors.

Google, as well as many other independent web sites, pull DMOZ directory data for use in their own directories. For this reason alone, it can have a major impact on a websites search engine standing if they are lucky enough to be included.

Submitting to the ODP is easy. Actually getting listed is a little tougher. Their strict inclusion policy coupled with about a billion spammers trying to get included and you’ve created the perfect storm of inefficiency. The editors at DMOZ do the best they can with the relatively small amount of resources at their disposal. It seems like it has become an uphill battle since it is also very difficult to become an editor as well.

Update: DMOZ closed as of March 17, 2017

Black Hat SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is an ideology followed by certain webmasters to help them increase exposure for a specific website or product. The techniques used to accomplish this exposure is what typically comes into question. In many cases, whether they know it or not, they violate one or more search engine guidelines. These tactics may benefit the webmaster for a short time before the bottom falls out and they are either severely penalized or permanently banned. Examples of black hat SEO may include:

• Keyword Stuffing
• Site/Page Cloaking
• Doorway Pages
• Spam Emails
• Invisible Text
• Forum/Blog Spam
• Duplicate Content
• Social Media Spam

Black hat SEO is by no means illegal, except for maybe spam emails and certain copyright violations. The majority of webmasters that practice black hat SEO don’t even know it. In many cases, they just don’t know enough about how a search engine works or have failed to read the terms of service (TOS). The ones that do know are ultimately risking the integrity of their website or product. Black hat SEO, in a nutshell, wastes an unbelievable amount of time and resources for webmasters, visitors, and internet service providers alike. But, until the search engines figure out a good way to stop it from being profitable, it will continue to exist and prosper.